Reblog
nickgerber: Hey. You. Yeah! You. Let’s have a quick chat. When talking about soldiers who are overseas for 14 months at a time, on their 3rd, 4th, 5th deployments, eating sand in every meal, sleeping on cots, watching friends die at the hands of a population that doesn’t want them there and coming home to a public that is unaware (intentionally or not) of what it’s like to be in war - what do you think is going to happen?  We’re putting our soldiers under a tremendous strain and then asking them to be completely ok with it. Oh, and by the way, we only report on this stuff. The media rarely shares the stories of members of the military rebuilding schools, establishing police stations, handing out food, and generally trying to do good in the communities they’re in. So they posed next to a suicide bomber after he tried to kill them. Really?!?!? The picture part of the story is the thing that’s wrong here? How about the guy that strapped 40lbs of C4 to his chest and went into a place where he could kill as many people as possible. I don’t condone the actions of the men who burned the Koran, the man who shot and killed 17 people or the Marines that peed on the dead member of the Taliban, but I think we’re honestly sensationalizing this. Let’s for once talk about the good that the soldiers are doing. Let’s for once raise awareness about the fact that we’re putting our soldiers into an impossible position. Let’s give them the facilities so that when they come home they can live the American dream they’re helping defend.   The fact that 25 soldiers die at home due to suicide to every 1 that dies in combat is another thing we should be talking about. Let’s talk about the best way to help these men and women as they come home. EDIT: The other thing that bothers me is that we as a public SHOULD see things like this. I am having a ton of people unfollow me because of this and maybe it’s because they don’t want to see pictures of dead people. Well if we’re going to ask our soldiers to endure this, we should sack up and try to understand (as much as we can) what it is that we’re asking them to do. This is the job we’ve given them. You don’t like it - lobby your congressional representative and have them come home, but don’t burry your head in the sand. We are in a war. As a nation.  thedailywhat: In Case You Missed It of the Day: Here we go again: The Army has launched a criminal investigation into actions of the 82nd Airborne Division after the Los Angeles Times showed officials copies of a series of 18 photos of soldiers posing with the mangled corpses of Afghans believed to be suicide bombers. The photos were taken in 2010 and came to light this week; the Times opted to publish two after tangling with the Pentagon, which tried — no surprise here — to prevent their publication. “The reason for that is those kinds of photos are used by the enemy to incite violence, and lives have been lost as the result of the publication of similar photos,” U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday. That may be true, Panetta, but it seems the photos also have been revealed at the worst possible time. In January, a video appeared online showing four Marines urinating on Afghan corpses. In February, the burning of copies of the Koran at a U.S. base resulted in riots that killed 30 and led to the deaths of six Americans. And in March, a Staff Sgt. Robert Bales went on a shooting rampage in two Afghan villages, killing 17. [boingboing]

nickgerber:

Hey. You. Yeah! You. Let’s have a quick chat. 

When talking about soldiers who are overseas for 14 months at a time, on their 3rd, 4th, 5th deployments, eating sand in every meal, sleeping on cots, watching friends die at the hands of a population that doesn’t want them there and coming home to a public that is unaware (intentionally or not) of what it’s like to be in war - what do you think is going to happen?  We’re putting our soldiers under a tremendous strain and then asking them to be completely ok with it. Oh, and by the way, we only report on this stuff. The media rarely shares the stories of members of the military rebuilding schools, establishing police stations, handing out food, and generally trying to do good in the communities they’re in.

So they posed next to a suicide bomber after he tried to kill them. Really?!?!? The picture part of the story is the thing that’s wrong here? How about the guy that strapped 40lbs of C4 to his chest and went into a place where he could kill as many people as possible.

I don’t condone the actions of the men who burned the Koran, the man who shot and killed 17 people or the Marines that peed on the dead member of the Taliban, but I think we’re honestly sensationalizing this. 

Let’s for once talk about the good that the soldiers are doing. Let’s for once raise awareness about the fact that we’re putting our soldiers into an impossible position. Let’s give them the facilities so that when they come home they can live the American dream they’re helping defend.  

The fact that 25 soldiers die at home due to suicide to every 1 that dies in combat is another thing we should be talking about. Let’s talk about the best way to help these men and women as they come home.

EDIT: The other thing that bothers me is that we as a public SHOULD see things like this. I am having a ton of people unfollow me because of this and maybe it’s because they don’t want to see pictures of dead people. Well if we’re going to ask our soldiers to endure this, we should sack up and try to understand (as much as we can) what it is that we’re asking them to do. This is the job we’ve given them. You don’t like it - lobby your congressional representative and have them come home, but don’t burry your head in the sand. We are in a war. As a nation. 

thedailywhat:

In Case You Missed It of the Day: Here we go again: The Army has launched a criminal investigation into actions of the 82nd Airborne Division after the Los Angeles Times showed officials copies of a series of 18 photos of soldiers posing with the mangled corpses of Afghans believed to be suicide bombers. The photos were taken in 2010 and came to light this week; the Times opted to publish two after tangling with the Pentagon, which tried — no surprise here — to prevent their publication.

“The reason for that is those kinds of photos are used by the enemy to incite violence, and lives have been lost as the result of the publication of similar photos,” U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday.

That may be true, Panetta, but it seems the photos also have been revealed at the worst possible time. In January, a video appeared online showing four Marines urinating on Afghan corpses. In February, the burning of copies of the Koran at a U.S. base resulted in riots that killed 30 and led to the deaths of six Americans. And in March, a Staff Sgt. Robert Bales went on a shooting rampage in two Afghan villages, killing 17.

[boingboing]

Top 10 Reasons Why Couples Break Up

blua:

10: Criticism

Not only is criticism flat-out destructive to a relationship, it often doesn’t budge an issue. Most behaviors never change—because most relationship problems are unresolvable. Gottman calculates that 69 percent of all marital problems are immutable, arising from basic personality differences between partners.

9: Lack of Fairness

One irony is that couples that try to slice all responsibilities down the middle wind up the least happy. Research indicates that’s because in trying to be scrupulously fair, they spend all their time measuring, comparing, and arguing over where the dividing line falls.

Read More

Is it bad if this pretty much sums up my relationship?

Imagination is more important than knowledge.